Description of government structure:

Chief of State: President Vladimir Vladimirovich PUTIN

Head of Government: Premier Dmitry Anatolyevich MEDVEDEV

Assembly: Russia has a bicameral Federal Assembly (Federalnoye Sobraniye) consisting of the Federation Council (Sovet Federatsii) with 166 seats and the State Duma (Gosudarstvennaya Duma) with 450 seats.

Description of electoral system:

The President is elected by absolute majority vote through a two-round system to serve a 6-year term.

The Premier is appointed by the president.

In the Federation Council (Sovet Federatsii) 166 members are appointed by regional governing councils.[1]

In the State Duma (Gosudarstvennaya Duma) 225 members are elected through a closed-list proportional representation system to serve 4-year terms.[2] The other 225 members are elected by plurality vote in single-member constituencies to serve 4-year terms.[3]

[1] There are 83 constituencies with a district magnitude of two. Terms to the Federation Council are not nationally fixed.

[2] Proportional representation seats are allocated using the Hare quota. For these seats, there is one nationwide district and a minimum threshold of 5% (lowered from 7% on 24 February 2014).

[3] On 24 February 2014, the State Duma voted to replace the system of full proportional representation established in 2007 whereby all members were elected through closed party lists with the previous mixed system that includes direct elections to single-member constituencies. In addition, all political parties must now present 200,000 signatures to register and all independent candidates must present the signatures of at least 3% of voters in their constituency. If a party received at least 3% of votes in the previous election or if at least one party member sits in a regional legislature, the party is exempt from this requirement. Candidates are allowed to run as both individual candidates and as members of a party list.